According to the Florida Sun Sentinel, four Personal Injury attorneys were arrested on September 6 and charged with organized crime, money laundering, and brokering. The attorneys hired other people to appeal to victims of car accidents and then would receive “kick backs” from the doctors who they referred the victims to for medical treatment. The police also arrested six other people who were involved with the attorney’s “kick back” scam as well. One of the attorneys was from Boca Raton and other three from Fort Lauderdale and they have all been released on bond. According to investigators, they received $521,070.00 in “kick backs” from May 2015 to December 2016. Now the attorneys are all waiting to go to trial.

Per Florida Statue 817.505 on Fraudulent Practices and the Florida Patient Brokering Act, it is unlawful for any person, including health care providers or facilities, to offer or pay, benefit, rebate, kickback, receive or give any form of compensation in exchange for referrals, regardless of the form of payment for the service or product. This Statue and Act were passed by the Florida Legislators after discovering that many mental health and substance abuse hospitals were making payments to individuals for the referral of patients identified in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, homeless shelters, and other similar environments. The medical facilities would come to an agreement with the patient brokers whose task was to evaluate patients at these facilities and determine if they had insurance. Then the patient broker would refer the patient to one of those medical facilities and in return receive some form of payment.

The Florida Sun Sentinel explains that patients were brokered to the health facilities, those facilities would begin to bill the auto insurance companies for claims that were covered by PIP benefits, which also resulted in fraud for the insurance companies. It gets worse… One of the attorneys is also being accused of embezzling his client’s settlement funds, meaning that he was also taking half of his client’s settlement checks. The attorney would give his clients their settlement checks, pay the high medical bills, and in return he received cash payments in half the amount of the amount written on the original settlement checks.

Earlier this week, twelve Floridians who defrauded the federal government of $20 million are being charged with food stamp fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to make the wire fraud. The defendants were between the ages of 30-65 years and have been running this conspiracy since April 2012. According to the Justice Department this has been the largest food stamp fraud crackdown in history.

Per Florida Statue 414.39, fraud is committed when any person is knowingly purchasing with food assistance benefits a product with the intent of obtaining cash or consideration other than eligible food by reselling the product, and subsequently intentionally reselling the product purchased with food assistance benefits in exchange for cash or consideration other than eligible food; or is intentionally purchasing products originally purchased with food assistance benefits in exchange for cash or consideration other than eligible food. This is exactly what the defendants did for almost eight years and in different counties of South Florida.

In a short period of time, these defendants committed an astounding amount of fraud and investigators are still surprised at how they did it. The defendants involved in this matter owned, operated, or worked at retailers who accepted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits as payments or they worked at unauthorized stores, but supposedly used point-of-sale terminals of authorized retailers to carry out the fraudulent transactions. The way the fraud was committed was that the store owners and employees accepted payments for illegal cash transactions involving no purchases of food.

Along with the evolution of law, came wrongful convictions. Wrongful convictions have been displayed in movies, books, music, and in all forms of mass communication but people seem to not care about it until it involves someone they care for, especially in capital cases. The problem with this is that all of those cases where the defendants have been wrongfully convicted are either ignored or forgotten. Many because they can not afford private attorneys and others because of underpaid public defenders who do not spend thorough time on each case they are assigned to. So this brings us to two important questions; What are the main causes of wrongful convictions? What are the best ways to prevent wrongful convictions?

There are many reasons as to why wrongful convictions continue to occur, even in capital cases, but two of the most influential factors according to Death Penalty Information Center are: official misconduct and perjury. Official misconduct is the illegal acts of public officers which violate their duties to follow the law and protect the public. Perjury is false accusations that are voluntarily told in a court room after taking an oath and swearing honesty. The most recent data from the National Registry of Exonerations illustrates that both official misconduct and perjury make up for 68.3% of the total contribution of wrongful convictions and that the rest is composed of mistaken witnesses, false or erroneous forensic evidence, fabricated confessions, and weak prosecution and defense.

Also, in two other reports conducted by the National Registry of Exonerations: Exonerations in 2016andRace and Wrongful Convictions in the United States it is explained that a person’s race is one of the greatest links to wrongful convictions because 87% of black death-row exonerees had been victims of official misconduct in comparison to the 67% of white death-row exonerees. Therefore, the increase of hate crimes is happening both inside and outside of prison walls because the government is not taking it as seriously as they should.

Hate crimes in Florida continue to increase every year and in significant amounts after the 2016 Presidential Election. This is something of great concerns because Florida has always been the destination of choice for many immigrants and their families due to its cultural diversity. According to the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Florida, a hate crime is an act committed or attempted by one person or group against another, or that person’s property, in a way that constitutes an expression of hatred toward the victim based on her or her personal characteristics. They explain that it is a crime when the perpetrator intentionally selects the victim based on one of the following characteristics: race, color, religion, ethnicity, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, homeless status, advanced age, or mental/physical disability.

The groups with the highest numbers of hate crimes both in Florida and the United States are: anti-immigrant, anti-black, anti-Muslim, anit-LGBT, anti-woman, and anti-Semitism groups.The people associated with these hate crimes call themselves “white nationalist” have no care or respect for other people besides those who fit their description of what an “American” should be. According to the FSRN, the FBI reported that the country had a 67% increase in hate crimes last year and in Florida the increase of hate crimes was at 500% therefore, providing data that illustrates why this issue is so concerning. They believe those number are much higher already and we are only half way through this year.

Hate crimes can be both verbal and physical because these crimes do not only involve people but the attacks can also be against churches and temples, schools, different public centers, jobs, different forms of transportation, on the internet, and even in people’s homes. In the state of Florida, the top five types of hate crimes are: (5) larceny or theft, (4) murder, (3) simple assault, (2) intimidation, (1) destruction/ damage/ vandalism of property. According to the reports from 2015 by the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Florida, the cities with the highest numbers of hate crimes were Miami-Dade, Volusia, and Orange County.

The Securities Act of 1933 is referred to as the “truth in securities” law. The act has two intended and effected results: It prohibits deceit, misrepresentations, and other fraud in the sale of securities. It does that by requiring that all investors in the capital and equity markets receive significant information concerning the securities being offered for sale to the public. It also does that by requiring the filing of a great deal of important information and facts in writing with the Security and Exchange Commission.

The act starts by requiring registration, which enables investors to make informed judgments about whether to purchase the securities issued by a corporation, or not to buy. The information required by the Securities and Exchange Commission requires that it be accurate but not guaranteed. If you suffer a loss in the purchase of securities, you have the right to recover your loss if you can prove that there was inaccurate or incomplete disclosures of important information. It starts by requiring that all securities sold in United States be registered. The registration requires a description of the company’s properties and businesses, a description of the security type being offered for sale, information about the management of the company, and certified financial statements by independent accountants.

Companies with more than $10 million in assets, whose securities are owned by more than 500 people, must file annual reports. Usually, the report includes an opening letter from the Chief Executive Officer, financial data, results of operations, market segment information, new product plans, subsidiary activities, and research and development activities on future programs. These reports are then available to the public through the Security and Exchange Commission’s database.

Increasingly the U.S. Attorney’s office has been actively pursuing men and women who were placed on Federal probation but have either stopped checking in or have violated their probation with a new arrest. Federal probation is a sentence, just as is Florida state probation. Violations of probation are most frequently one of the following:

Failing to report a change of address or get approval to move from the probation officer

On January 10th, 2017, it was announced that Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, was appointed as Senior Advisor to the future President. News reports of “conflict of interest” by Donald Trump, Jared Kushner and the Trump family have morphed into allegations of insider trading, a crime punishable by prison and significant financial penalties.

There is talk of a pending Congressional criminal hearing on violations of Stock Act of 2012 and insider trading charges in contemplation against Donald Trump and his family members. The Stock Act of 2012 was enacted to restrict insider trading by members of Congress and their staff and can extend to the President. The inquiry examines the extent to which Donald Trump, Mr. Kushner and Trump family members have exploited access to government policy in making real estate ventures.

Impeachment is governed by Article II Section Four of the U.S. Constitution, which states that the President shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Treasons is levying war against the United States, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. Bribery is defined in federal statutes, not in the constitution. High crimes and misdemeanors likewise is defined by looking at old British case law, there is no definition in our constitution. And yes, a sitting president can be impeached for things done before being sworn in.

Source: Wikimedia.org

Impeachment applies to the President, Vice President, and can, and has, been used to remove senators, congressman, federal judges and other “civil officers.” Remember Vice President Spiro Agnew? He avoided a near impeachment, and resigned instead in 1973. Agnew was later indicted for things done when he was governor. An impeachment is an indictment.

The Daily Mail reports that Walter Palmer, the Minnesota millionaire dentist, is thriving and Cecil the Lion….is still dead. But the first anniversary year of the killing has revived the protest by those who are still outraged at the staged killing of the park animal.

Dr. Walter Palmer, one year ago, had his trophy kill gutted and readied to be shipped to his home in the U.S. when the story broke and brought a firestorm of outrage on the bewildered dentist. The millionaire dentist who was forced into hiding for a brief time has avoided prosecution both in Zimbabwe and the United States. Zimbabwe abandoned its attempts to extradite Dr. Palmer and announced that no laws had been broken. I personally am starting a fundraising project to raise money for Dr. Palmer to have an all expense paid trip to China where he can have a free ride in an open door-less car to visit Badaling Safari World in Bejing, China.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on July 22, 2016 the unsealing of what will be an epic Medicare fraud sweep involving members of the South Florida community, both in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. This is the largest Medicare Fraud crime federal indictment in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice. It involves a network of doctors, hospitals, health care providers, adult living facilities (ALF’s), nursing homes, and private physicians and health care providers who have collectively, (allegedly) fraudulently billed Medicaid and Medicare in excess of one billion dollars.

Named in the unsealed indictment is the owner of a business that owns and operates over 30 facilities for profit that provide nursing and assisted living services. The allegations include conspiracy, bribery, kickbacks and fraudulent billing of services either not provided or, as some unconfirmed reports indicate; provided to dead people. The unsealed indictment is one of many that the joint task force anticipates will be bring dozens of people to court as criminal defendants in federal court in South Florida. The Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health announced it believes in excess of $2.5 Billion of fraudulent charges are paid out every year by Medicare and Medicaid fraudulently and that South Florida is the focus of the task force. Also named in the unsealed indictment is Odette Barcha, 49, and Arnaldo Carmouze, 56, all of Miami-Dade County.

Philip Esformes, the owner of more than 30 facilities, was named as the “mastermind” of the conspiracy. He is represented by attorney Marissel Descalzo and Michael Pasano of the Carton Fields law firm. In 2013, Attorney Michael Pasano also represented Karen Kallen-Zury who was convicted and found guilty, along with others, of running a $70 million Medicare fraud and bribery scheme involving mental health hospitals. Also convicted in the Southern District of Florida in that case was Daisy Miller of Hollywood and Michele Petrie of Fort Lauderdale.